New Yorkers have never been accused of having the sunniest outlook on politics in their state. But that was before Andrew Cuomo became their governor.
Cuomo continues to be held in very high esteem, notching a 71% favorability rating in the latest poll from Siena College, with only 21% of New York voters having an unfavorable view of him. Despite inheriting a nine billion dollar deficit, the TPM Poll Average of Cuomo’s favorability remains at a high 75.9%, having scored victories with a budget deal that cut spending while not raising income tax rates and pushing through a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state.
And while chatter about Cuomo’s national prospects has grown with his state-level successes, it turns out Empire State voters would prefer not to share their governor with the country. 80% of those polled responded to speculation of Cuomo running for the presidency as “premature” and that he should concentrate on being the governor of New York, effectively saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In fact, when asked whether they would approve of President Barack Obama replacing VP Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket with Cuomo, only 39% did, with 51% rejecting the idea.
“For years, the word most often heard to describe state government generally and the Legislature specifically has been ‘dysfunctional.’ In voters’ minds, the Governor and Legislature took a step forward this year to change that,” wrote Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
The poll of 813 registered New York voters was conducted by Siena College from July 6th to 11th, and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
Kyle Leighton
Kyle is the Poll Editor at TPM. He graduated from Beloit College (WI) and began working in politics before getting an M.A. in magazine journalism from New York University, where he interned at TPM and the website of The New Yorker.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.